Extrusion device for forming pellets



Dec. 16, 1947. H. DQESKEN EXTRUSION DEVICE FOR FORIING PELLETS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Dec.. 16, 1944 MU .hv/ nv nv a N EN dw@ I ww .2 n o .mv N l L J2 im S Y x d mw t k L V y d xm: NN n. linnn: 9N l l )d r L' J Jdlu" n .Il K`||L` `N- t B R83 -v 8 v Q u n u mv- N.. K NUN HENRY INVHJTOR.

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Dc. 16, 1947. H; DoEsKEN EXTRUSION DEVICE FOR 'FORMIG PELLETS Filed De. 16, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.' .HE/wey Do KEN A r rok/yf y.

Patented Dec.` 16, 1947 EXTRUSON DEVICE FDR FORMING PELLETS Henry /Doesken, Los Angeles, Calif., assignor to Filtrol Corporation, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of Delaware Application December 16, 1944, Serial No. 568,539

This invention relates to an extrusion device for forming pellets, such as pellets of catalysts.

It is an object of this invention to extrude material through a die and to cut oif the extruded 3 Claims. (Cl. 25-109) the drive shaft in order to remove the knife.

I have arranged for the replacement of a new set of cutting knives onthe header while the header still remains in its normal position on its drive material so as to produce pellets of uniform length 5 shaft. having ends with sharp edges and substantially I have found that in order to produce in such perpendicular to the axis of the extruded mateextrusion machines pellets of uniform length it rial. Screw or auger type extruders and other is desirable to maintain a uniform pressure of the types of extrudersin which semi-plastic material knife against the die plate as the knife moves is forced through dies commonly employ various across the extrusion die plate. In pellet extrudmethods for cutting extruded material into deing devices, due to various operating causes, it is sired lengths. For ordinary types of uses the difficultto maintain a uniform pressure on the characteristics of the ends of the pellets thus material to be extruded against the face of the formed are not of material importance. In formdie. I have noticed that frequently pressures are y ing pelleted catalysts, however, the characterisapplied which are strong enough to force the die tics of the end portion of the pellet become of plate outwardly and even to buckle the die plate importance since any deformation of the ends into the plane of the rotating knives. When this of the pellet results in a zone of weakness where' happens, not only is the cutting edge of the knives splitting or attrition results. l badly damaged, but also the die plate itself be- I have found that in order. to obtain extruded comes mutilated by the knife and the cutting pellets having ends of the desired shape it is deknives and the die plate must thenr be renewed. sirable to cut thepellet as it extrudes through the My invention overcomes this difficu ty. die plate by means of a knife which is so mounted I employ a floating-header to hold the knife. at such an angle to the face of the die and is oper- The header is resiliently and slidably and rotat ated at a sufficient velocity across the face of the .ably mounted on the drive shaft. The drive shaft die `so that the following pellets do not abut carries a spring which presses theknives against against the back of the knife with sulcient presthe die plate. The compression of fthe spring and sure to deform the pellet. The cutting edge of therefore the pressure of the knives against the the knife, as it cleaves through the extruded ma-` die plate may be adjusted, thereby maintaining terial, must be maintained continuously at a satisthe proper position of the floating-header in relafactoryv degree of sharpness. In all such pelleting tion to the die plate. The knives are also made operations, using the extruders of the prior art, of flexible spring steel so that their inherent flexiit therefore becomes necessary to replace the bility causes them to press with a yieldab-le presknives as theknife edges become dulled from use. sure against the die plate so that a regulatable It is an object of my invention to provide a cut- `und uniform pressure 1S maintained against the ting mechanism in which the cutting knives will die plate notwithstanding the possibility that the require replacement less frequently and in which die plate itself might -be forced out of its original the knives which I employ Will maintain their vertical plane by excessive pressures, as previously suitable cutting edge for a substantially longer described. operating period than formerly. 40 I thus attain the required regulatable pressure It is a further object to so mount the knives of of the cutting vknives against the die plate, not my invention that their/replacement by even an only because of the spring, but also because I unskilled workman takes but a fraction of the employ a.cutting knife fabricated from flexible time/required by prior art extruders. spring steel and of up to about' 11s" thickness or I attain these improvements and operating thereabouts. economies by asimplication of the knife mount- The regulation of the pressure of the knives ing. I mount the knife by means of a single and against the die plate is important since it permits easily accessible holding bolt, which secures and the adjustment of the degree of the pressure of positions the cutting knife against a suitable the knives against the die plate for the pelleting shoulder on a knife-keeper plate and in turn also of various types of material of differing density pro/perly positions and secures the cutting knife and plasticity. and a knife-keeper plate against a similar shoul- For the above and other reasons, as will be der on the arm of my cutterhead. apparent to those skilled in the art, my invention In the extruder of my invention it is not now avoids the mutilation of the die plate and thel necessary to disassemble the cuttingheader from consequent destruction ofthe cutting edge of the 3 cutting knives. The pellet-cutting mechanism of our invention is highly flexible. The pressure of the pellet cutting knives on the die plate as the knives sweep across the face of the die is selfadjustable to maintain a regulatable pressure on the die plate face.

The resilient mounting of the knife also insures that the pellet ends will not be mutilated should the material, exiting from the extrusion die holes, abut against the back of the knife. If as a result of variationsin extrusion rate or variations in speed of rotation of the knives, notwithstanding the angularity of the knife, the extruded material abuts against the back of the knife, the pressure of such extruded material will cause the knife to back oi so as not to squash the pellets. The compression caused by the spring may be adjusted to the desired level for this purpose.

My invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of the preferred embodiment of my invention taken together with the drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of our extruder.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the cutting knife mounting on the floating header.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the pellet cutting mechanism.

Figure 4 discloses the detail of knife mounting.

In Figure 1, the power from auger drive motor I is delivered through shaft 2 to variable speed transmission 3 and thence through speed reducing gears 4 and 5 to shafts 4 and 5' to, respectively, auxiliary rotating auger 6 and main auger 1 residing respectively in barrels 6 and 1". Barrels 8" and 1" have free intercommunication and contain respectively auxiliary auger B and main rotating auger 1. Auger 6 is journaled at one end at II. Auger I serves as a feeder to auger 1 by means of plowJIl. The auger mechanism is enclosed in housing 8 through which hopper H-H' supplies the feed of material to the augers for subsequent extrusion. The end of the extruder consists of a. spacer liner I6' in line with barrel 1" and main auger 1 and spacer plate I6 having one tapered opening I4 also in line with barrel 1" and main auger 1 and a die plate I1. The plane faced die plate I1 carries perforations I8 also in line with barrel 1". [The flights on augers 6 and 1 are represented by 6' and 1.

. 'I'he combined openings in spacer-liner I6' and in spacer plate I6 form a reservoir-chamber I5. The impeller I' mounted on auger 1 is positioned within chamber I5 and is spaced from die plate I1. Knives secured to floating extruder cutter abuts against the end of the header I8 and is retained in placeat the other end against a spring-follower 38. The position of the follower is adjusted by screw 39 held securely in position by lock nut 40. The compression, thus adjustably regulated by the positioning of the follower 38, provides for regulatable pressure of the knives against the die face. An oil splash holeis provided at 35" communicating between the interior bore 31 and the drive shaft housing 35 held between the bearings 2l. A lubricator 22 is connected with the bore 35. The bearings 2| are mounted on cutter framesupport 3|, which in turn is mounted on the extruder. The lubricant passing from 22 through shaft housing 35 passes through the splash hole 35 from oil reservoir 36 to lubricate the bore 31 and spring therein and also the header I9 and the bearings. The header I9, as described below, carries a keyway 45, and spline key 44 is fastened on shaft 20. The end of the floating header I9 carries the knife brackets orheader arms 43' on each of which I mount a pellet cutting knife 4I and a knife keeper plate 42.

The fiat spring steel knife 4I is mounted between the header arm 43 and the keeper plate 42 which abuts against a supporting shoulder 43" of the header arm 43'. A bolt 43 holds the knife securely in position between the keeper plate 42 and the header arm 43' and permits, by its removal, the quick removal and replacement of the knife without removing the header from its operating position on shaft 20. As shown in Figures 3 and 4, knife 4I rests against keeper-plate shoulder I42' of keeper-plate 42 and, as previously mentioned, both the plate and knife rest against header-arm shoulder 43" of header-arm 43.

Figure 4 shows a fragmentary detail of one arm of the' floating header, which header is shown vmounted in Figure 3. In Figure 4 is also shown in greater detail the method 'of mounting and some further details of knife-keeper plate 42 but with the cutting knife 4I not being in position. Keeper-plate 42 is formed with a somewhat ilexible lip 42" above the keeper-plate shoulder 42'. The inner face of the keeper-plate or that side of the plate which contains shoulder 42' is beveled so that the width of the opening between the y entrance is less than the thickness of the knife header I9 rotate across the face of the plate I1, y

which carries the die holes I8. The floating header or cutterhead I9 will be described below. The cutting header is slidably and rotatably held on shaft 20. The axis of the shaft 20 is coincident with the axis of the extruder auger 1 and with the center of the die plate i1 so that the knives sweep over the die plate around its center. The header I9 is thus rotated by shaft 20 positioned in beardriving sprockets are protected by housing 29 and 3U is the housing for the cutter mechanism.

As shown in Figure 3, the drive shaft 20 is bored or hollow at 31 to receive a coil spring 31 which The pellet cutting mechanism is when the bolt 43 ,is tightened. When the knife is inserted in this opening and the bolt 43 is screwed into place, the lip 42" of keeper-plate 42 is bent so as to press the cutting knife with a spring and vice-like action firmly against the header arm 43'.

The axis ef the shaft 20 is coincident with the axis of the extruder auger 1 and with the center of the die plate I1 so that the knivesv sweep over the die plate around its center.

As also shown in Figure 2, the knives are of such width or length that they sweep across the whole face of -the die provided with the orifices I8. ri'he back of the knives facing the die plate are plane surfaces and the keeper 42 is beveled at its end, and the knives are positioned at such an angle to the die plate so that, at minimum practical speed of rotation of the knife header and the minimum practical extrusion rate of the pellets, the knives sweep suitably across the die plate to cut off the pellets so as to produce square and clean-cut pellet ends. The angle of the knives against the die face together with the resilient mounting together with the relative rate of travel is such as to insure that pellets will not abut against the plane back of the knife with sufcient pressure to deform the pellet ends. A suitable angle for mounting the knives is about 20 to 30 measured against the die face. In other words, my invention protects the shaped extruded material from mutilation during the cutting of such extruded material into uniformly shaped pellets.

In order to mount my floating cutter header, housing 3l is removed from the extruder by removing bolts suitably provided as shown, and the cutterheader may then be slid over the end of the shaft" 20 with spline key 44 properly engaged in keyway 45. In order to remove the knife from the header, it is merely necessary to remove one bolt 43 and the keeper plate 42 may then be removed and the knife removed or introduced in place. When the header is placed over the end of the shaft, the cutter housing may then be attached to the extruder. By adjusting the compression control screw 39, the desired pressure may be exerted via spring 31 against the end of the header and the knives will then press with the desired degree of uniformly maintained pressure against the face of the die plate. As the knives sweep across the die plate to cut the extruded material into pellets, the extruded material, which is moving through the die orices at a rate controlled by the speed of rotation of the screw, is forced out of the dieplate orifices.

In the present construction my header cutting knives, being resiliently mounted, yield under the self regulatable pressure of my invention so as to cut olf the material extruded from the die plate orifices into suitably shaped pellets without mashing the ends of such pellets. Additionally, where excessive extrusion material pressure is the cause of either the buckling or the distortion of the die plate, my resiliently mounted knives will then flex and also my floating header itself will then move to accommodate suitably any such excessive pressure and my knives will not then gouge into the face of the plate, nor will the knife cutting edge become damaged by any such die plate distortion.

In my extruder, the knives last much longer and need not be replaced as frequently as when inflexibly mounted knives are secured to a rigidly mounted cutterheader. Considerable experience with my type of cutter mounting has shown a large reduction in thecost of knives and the cost of operations involved in changing and replacing knives. Thus, on an extruder employed in the production of extruded acid activated clay pellets employed as cataylst, the cost in changing knives when employing my invention is but about 4% of the cost with the rigidly mounted knives of the prior art extruders. The time lost in changing cutting knives employed with the old rigid type cutting header, representing the per cent of the time during which the extruder was down in order to change the knives, based on total time consumed in operation and in changing knives, was 42%; whereas with the floating type header of my invention it was but 1%.

While the above cutter mechanism has been described in connection with a screw type extruder in which it has particular utility, theA principles of our invention are applicable to other types of extruders in which extrusion is caused by plungers, rollers, or other mechanisms in the place of a screw or auger. It may be also applied to extruders wherein both the knife and the die plate move relatively to each other or to extruders where the knife is stationary and the die plate moves relative to the knives which may be stationary. Y

It is to be understood that the foregoing description of the embodiments of my invention is for purposes of illustration, and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An extruder including a die plate, means for extruding material through said die plate, a rotatable knife mounted to rotate across the face pf said die plate, comprising a hollow shaft mounted with its axis perpendicular and axially aligned with the center of said die plate, a floating header slidably mounted over the end of said shaft, adjacent to said die plate and rotatable with said shaft, a spring mounted in the interior of said shaft and against the end of said header, knives mounted on said header at an angle to said die plate and means for compressing said spring against said header to force said knives against said die plate under regulatable pressure, means for rotating said shaft.

2. An extruder including a die plate, means for extruding material through said die plate, a rotatable knife mounted to rotate across the face with said shaft, a spring mounted in the interior of said shaft and against the end of said header, knives mounted on said header at an angle to said die plate and means for compressing said spring against said header to force said knives against said die plate under regulatable pressure, means for rotating said shaft, and means to lubricate the said spring and said header. Y

3. In a device for cutting strands of material extruded through orifices of a die plate, a hollow shaft rotatably mounted with its axis perpendicular to said die plate, a floating header mounted over the end of said shaft adjacent said die plate, slidable along said shaft and rotatable therewith, knives mounted on said header at a cutting angle with respect to said die plate, and resilient means mounted in the interior of said shaft and against said header to compress said header and knives toward said die plate.

' HENRY DOESKEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

